At a time when Nollywood was dominated by older women who featured more in cultural films, Adebimpe Adekola popular on and off screen as Ireti was the toast of young and old. She was the poster girl of Yoruba love movies.
She was a screen goddess and one of the few most sought after relatively younger actresses who made Nollywood attractive in the late 1990s. She was part of the generation of actors who made home videos popular in the 1990s.
Born in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State, Ireti as she is fondly called in movies was a versatile and talented actress who could take on any role, from cultural to love movies.
She earned the screen name Ireti in 1993 after playing the character ‘Ireti’ in ‘Asiri Nla’ a movie by veteran Nollywood actor Jide Kosoko. From then on, the name stuck and she became popular as Ireti as many of her fans and movie lovers never knew her as Adebimpe Adekola before and after her death.
Ireti was trained as an actress by the Odunfa Caucus, one of the longest surviving theatre academies in the Yoruba movie industry. The group was founded in 1986 by veteran actors Yinka Quadri, Taiwo Hassan aka Ogogo, Razak Ajao aka Araosan, who now lives in the U.S and popular movie director Abbey Lanre.
Also trained by the Odunfa Caucus are actors like Saheed Balogun, Faithia Balogun, Yomi Fabiyi, Sanni Alli, Funke Akindele, Aina Gold, Iyabo Ojo, Kemi Afolabi and Yomi Gold.
Being an alumna of the Odunfa theatre group influenced why the tall, dark and elegant Ireti starred mostly in movies with Ogogo. Ogogo and Ireti’s affinity in movies, mostly as a couple, fuelled speculations that the duo were dating and may likely get married.
After Ogogo got married in 1994, speculations were rife that he was having an affair with Ireti. Reacting to the speculation in a recent interview, Ogogo said: “What you perceive to be this may not be so. It was inside this very house that we are talking that we taught Ireti acting. She was my girl, my sister, my baby. Let me put it that way.
She was my baby, I nurtured her and she cannot be in this group and we have a part she can perfectly play in a production and begin to look for someone from another group. Forget that we got fixed up in others and mostly played couples. Ours was not the first. It is done abroad. Though some people made that mistake about Ireti and I; that we will get married.
But we had nothing like that in mind. We both knew why we were in industry. I am happily married and she was a very serious-minded person. So, there was nothing between us except a business relationship.”
Ireti died in September 2002 at a Lagos hospital after a brief illness. Her death shook Nollywood, fans and colleagues. Worse hit were her colleagues at the Odunfa theatre group who were so fond of her and wondered who would take her role after her demise. She appeared in all movies produced by the Odunfa Caucus before her death.
Some of the movies she featured in included: Ike Owo, Agba Akin, 23/24 Loro Ile Aye, Edunjobi, Sikira Ereko, among many others
When she died in 2002, she left a son Tomiwa Adekola who was just a few months old. Tomiwa is now 17 years old and said he plans to pursue a career in sports as a basketball player.
Nollywood actors Yomi Fabiyi and Sunny Alli who were trained at the Odunfa Caucus shared photos of Tomiwa on social media last year.